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What's New
Latest documents on Iraq and updates to this site
If you are looking for latest news and information about Iraq, good first
sites to examine are the archive
of latest postings from CASI Discussion list members (in particular,
the extensive weekly update entitled "news") and the news
section of this website, which contains recent headlines on Iraq and
sanctions and a list of useful media sources. Upcoming
Events are also recorded elsewhere. This page contains details of
updates to the CASI site, and links to recently-released primary documents
and research publications.
- Latest draft UN
resolution, authorising a multinational force in Iraq (14 October
2003)
- The Future of CASI. CASI is inviting comments on this
proposal for its role in the future. There will also be an EGM
to discuss CASI's future on 18th October, in the Erasmus Room, Queens'
College, Cambridge, 3-7pm.
- Special
report of the FAO/WFP Crop, food supply and nutrition assessment
mission to Iraq (23 September 2003)
- New information added to UN Resolutions
page (October 2003)
- Three polls of public opinion in Iraq:
- Southern
Iraq:Reports of Human Rights Abuses and Views on Justice, Reconstruction
and Government. A survey of 2000 inhabitants of
An-Najaf, An-Nasyriah and Al-Amarah conducted by Physicians for
Human Rights
in June and July 2003. (published 28 September 2003)
- Zogby
International survey, covering desired form of government, exectations of future
conditions, and experience of current conditions.
More detailed polling data has been published by some newspapers,
and can also be purchased from Zogby. (poll conducted August
2003, published 10 September 2003)
- Baghdad's
view on the war.
Survey conducted by YouGov, Channel 4 News and the Spectator.
This poll shows guarded optimism about
future
progress and support for the war, but distrust of the motives
underlying it.
- "Iraq's
Shiites Under Occupation" (International Crisis Group report,
9 September 2003). Summary or full
report.
- "Iraq’s
Reconstruction Contracts: Telecommunications". Report from
Iraq Revenue Watch. Outlines concerns with the CPA's July tender for
mobile telephone services, and suggests improvements to the process.
(28 August 2003).
- International Crisis Group report "Governing
Iraq" (25 August 2003). Read either the summary
or the full
report.
- "Were
sanctions right?", New York Times magazine article by David
Rieff (27 July 2003). Analysis by Nathaniel Hurd in this CASI
discussion list posting.
- Report of the UN Secretary
General on conditions and UN activity in Iraq (17 July
2003)
- New page of information about the CPA,
the US governing body headed by Paul Bremer
- Annual mortality
rates and excess deaths of children under five in Iraq, 1991-98.
(by M. Ali, J. Blacker and G. Jones). Paper to be printed in Population
Studies, July 2003. Based on UNICEF 1999 mortality survey, estimates
that 400-500,000 excess deaths occurred as a result of the Gulf War
and its aftermath. (added 03 July 2003)
- Future of Iraq Portal
(a collection of links with a focus on what friends of Iraq and Iraqi
ex-pats can do to support and empower the Iraqi people) (added 03 July
2003)
- Archive
of Peter Brooke's compilations of Iraq news (added 03 July 2003)
- CASI press release: NGO welcomes lifting
of sanctions, calls on UN to learn from mistakes (22 May 2003)
- UN lifts sanctions - UN
statement. The full text of the resolution is not yet available,
but an earlier US/UK draft can be found here.
(22 May 2003)
- US/UK
draft UN Security Council Resolution including proposal to lift
sanctions (9 May 2003)
- International Humanitarian Law Research Initiative: Monitoring
IHL in Iraq (added 19 April)
- Global
Policy Forum - Humanitarian Crisis page (added 19 April 2003)
- A list compiled by Peacemakers Trust of
humanitarian organizations working for people in Iraq or Iraqi refugees
(added 19 April 2003)
- Down
and Out in Baghdad and Basra, an economic assesment of the effects
of sanctions (March 11, 2003)
- Humanitarian Information
Centre for Iraq website, set up by the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs. (added 19 April 2003)
- Statement
by President George Bush, including a call for the United Nations
to lift the economic sanctions on Iraq (16 April 2003)
- CASI briefing, Hearts and Minds:
Aid and reconstruction in Iraq, 16 April 2003.
- David Arnott - resource list
for economic consequences of war. (added 11th April 2003).
- Security
Council Resolution no. 1472 (28 March 2003).
- International Crisis Group report, "War
in Iraq: managing humanitarian relief" (27 March 2003).
- Sanctions and the "Moral
Case" for War, MERIP briefing by Per Oskar Klevnäs, CASI's
research officer (4 March 2003) [added 8 March 2003].
- Leaked UN document, released 6 March 2003: United Nations Inter-Agency
Standing Committee (IASC), "UN
Inter-agency humanitarian preparedness and response plan for Iraq and
neighbouring countries" (20 December 2002).
- "Making Targeted Sanctions
Effective: Guidelines for the implementation of UN Policy Options",
final report of the 'Stockholm Process' on the
implementation of targeted sanctions, (14 February 2003) [added 5 March
2003].
- "The War Behind
Closed Doors", PBS station WGBH's Frontline special
on Iraq and the making of US policy.
- Unicef press release
regarding polio and measles vaccinations for Iraqi children (18 February
2003) [added 5 March 2003].
- "Claims in
Secretary of State Colin Powells UN Presentation concerning Iraq, 5th
Feb 2003" (5 February 2003) [Added 5 March 2003].
- International Study Team, "Health and Welfare
in Iraq after the Gulf Crisis: An In-Depth Assessment" (October
1991) [Added 5 March 2003].
- UNMOVIC's
12th Quarterly Report (28 February 2003), to be presented by Hans
Blix to the UN Security Council on 8 March 2003.
- The transcript of Hussein Kamal's
interview with UNSCOM (22 August 1995), released on 27 February
2003. An overview is here.
- New leaked internal UN documents on the humanitarian consequences
of war on Iraq, released 13 February 2003. See also CASI's press release.
- Press
release from CARE International UK addressing
the potential humanitarian consequences of military action in Iraq,
(31 January 2003) [added 10 February 2003].
- The official transcript
of Security Council meeting S/PV.4701. Also see the accompanying briefing
slides from Colin Powell's statement and Dr. Glen
Rangwala's updated posting to CASI discussion list.
- Summary of the position on war, disarmament and inspections (23 January
2003) from the January 20 2003 meeting
of the Security Council [added 6 February 2003]:
- Two new articles on the consequences
of war in Iraq [both added 5 February 2003]:
- Three new reports from The International
Federation of Human Rights Leagues [all added 5 February 2003]:
- Inspections
in Iraq: a primer . Contains links to a number of articles on the
inspections process in the 1990s [added 5 February 2003].
- Conflict in Iraq: Concerns and
Consequences, a project which 'aims to contribute to international
consideration of the political, military and economic dynamics around
the current conflict between Iraq and the US and its allies' [added
5 February 2003].
- CASI's CASI Iraq news extracts, a
collection of news clippings [added 5 February 2003].
- Link to an Iraqi culture site: shakoomakoo.com. According
to media-arabia.org, 'a complex site, offering the avantgarde viewpoint
of a good literary magazine.' [added 5 February 2003]
- The statement of Mr. Fischer (German
Foreign Minister) to the UN Security Council, pp.5-6 (20 January
2003):
"We are greatly concerned that a military strike against
the regime in Baghdad would involve considerable and unpredictable
risks for the global fight against terrorism. ... in addition to disastrous
consequences for long-term regional stability, we also fear possible
negative repercussions for the joint fight against terrorism. These
are fundamental reasons for our rejection of military action."
- "On the frontline:
facing poverty and fear in Iraq", an index of photos covering
a visit to Iraq by Catholic agencies (October 2002) [added 28 January
2003].
- UN Commission on Human Rights,
Sub-Commission resolution E/CN.4/Sub.2/2002/L.7 (7 August 2002), on
the Humanitarian
situation of the Iraqi population.
- Two pieces from Oxfam Community Aid
Abroad (Australia)
- New page of assessments of the
likely humanitarian and economic consequences of war on Iraq
- "Likely Humanitarian
Scenarios", a draft internal UN document on possible
scenarios for a war on Iraq, dated 10 December 2002, has been added
to the site. Further comments on the context of this document are here
(added to the site on 4 January 2003).
- Displaced Civilian (DC) Camp Operations
- a Microsoft Power Point presentation dated 11 November 2002 from the
US military, most likely from the Civilian Military Operations unit
of the Combined Forces Land Component Command. Its aim is "to coordinate
Government of Kuwait/IO [International Organization] - NGO [Non-Governmental
Organization] support for Displaced Civilian (DC) Camps in the Iraq-Kuwait
demilitarized zone and Southern Iraq in the event of coalition hostilities
with Iraq, and to present the concept for a Humanitarian Operations
Center (HOC)". It includes estimates for numbers of displaced civilians
and predicts the causes of that displacement (added to the site on 4
January 2003).
- Security Council Resolution
1454 (30 December 2002) implements revisions to the Goods Review
List. See also the accompanying UN press
release.
- New CASI briefing: Analysis of
Foreign Office press release of 24 November 2002, and CASI's
accompanying
press release (22 December 2002)
- Statement
by Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary (18 December 2002) - explaining
the British position on the Iraqi weapons declaration.
- Hawlati is an independent, weekly
newspaper published from Iraqi Kurdistan. An English edition is published
on Mondays.
- Harper's Magazine article by
Joy Gordon, " Cool War",
(November 2002).
- Brookings Institution report from John Fawcett and Victor Tanner,
"The
Internally Displaced People of Iraq", (October 2002).
- International Crisis Group
Report, "Voices
from the Iraqi Street".
The goal of this briefing paper is to go beyond [common]
assumptions and offer a snapshot of what Iraqis on the ground are
saying about the ongoing crisis, their immediate concerns and their
visions of the future.
- Security Council
Resolution 1447 (4 December 2002).
- Extends the oil-for-food programme by 6 months, obliges the council
to review the goods review list within one month and asks the Secretary
General to produce a report on the adequacy of Iraq's distribution
mechamisms within the country and oil-for-food revenues within six
months. See the accompanying press release.
- The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has launched Crisis in Iraq.
This site contains news about weapons inspections in Iraq, expert analysis,
information about US policy in the Middle East, and links to key resources.
- New paper from Nathaniel Hurd (consultant on United Nations
Iraq policy for the Mennonite Central Committee United Nations Office):
Security Council Resolution 1441 and the Threat of Force (PDF
or MS Word).
- An Occasional Paper from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences,
War with Iraq:
Costs, Consequences, and Alternatives. Contributors include
William Norhaus, Steven Miller, Carl Kaysen, John Steinbruner, and Martin
Malin.
- Unmovic Report S/2002/1303:
eleventh quarterly report (27 November 2002)
- International Crisis Group Report, " Arming
Saddam: the Yugoslav Connection ".
- UNDP-Iraq produces a monthly newsletter on Iraqi development news.
The link to the website changes monthy but can be accessed from their
website under 'Update Newsletter'.
- Unicef report: "Overview
of Nutritional Status of Under-fives in South/Centre Iraq".
Original MS
Word format also available.
[P]reliminary figures ... show that acute and general malnutrition
are now less than half the levels of 1996 ... Despite gains, the present
level of child malnutrition remains high compared to 1991 levels,
which were already elevated after one year of sanctions. Therefore,
more needs to be done by all stakeholders to further reduce malnutrition
in Iraq.
(posted 2 December 2002).
- Japan's
Basic Position and Diplomatic Efforts Relating to the Iraq Issue
from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (November 2002).
- New book: Simons, Geoff, Targeting Iraq: Sanctions and Bombing
in US Policy (London: Saqi Books, 2002).
Order from: Amazon.co.uk
- Caritas Internationalis. "On
the Bring of War: A Recipe for a Humantiarian Disaster", report
from a delegation to Iraq in October 2002.
- Rogers, Paul. "Iraq:
Consequences of War". Oxford Research Group
report. October 2002.
- UN Secretary General's 180-day report for Phase XII of
the Oil for Food Programme (S/2002/1239, 12 November 2002). There is
also an oral
briefing by the Office of the Iraq Programme of 19 November 2002,
and a 62 page
note by OIP of 12 November 2002.
- Security Council
Resolution 1443 (25 November 2002).
- Extends the oil-for-food programme by 9 days only, due to disagreements
over US proposals to broaden the Goods Review List. See also the
accompanying
press release.
- The US/UK initial draft resolution
to the Security Council of 2 October 2002. Details of subsequent
drafts and the final resolution can be found on the Security Council resolutions page.
- Five new UNICEF links:
- October 1998 Washington Post Article, "Arms
Inspectors 'Shake the Tree'", reporting experiences of former
UNSCOM insepctors.
- Four pieces assessing the economic
and humantiarian consequences of war
- Two sites providing resources:
- Iraq Peace Team: peace
advocacy organisation with a presence inside Iraq.
- Iraq Journal: a collection
of reports from Iraq compiled by journalist Jeremy Scahill.
- Graham-Brown, Sarah and Christ Toensing., "Why
Another War? A Backgrounder on the Iraq Crisis". Middle East
Research and Information Project (MERIP).
22 October 2002.
- Two pieces related to opposition movements in Iraq:
- The "Baghdad
Diary" of MCC worker,
Edward Miller: an account of daily life written from Iraq.
- Two new research articles of interest:
- Security
Council resolution 1441 passed on 8 November 2002. A collection
of previous drafts of this resolution, and some comments on them, can
be found here.
- Draft resolutions on Iraq to the Security Council: the UK/US
draft of 5 November 2002.
- Draft resolution on Iraq to the Security Council: the US
draft (25 October) with the text of the letter of Blix and El-Baradei
(8 October 2002).
- Draft resolutions on Iraq to the Security Council: the Russian
draft and the French draft of 23
October 2002.
- Hans Blix, chairman of Unmovic - briefing
notes for his statement to the UN Security Council, made on 28 October
2002.
- "Summary of
Recent Data on Humanitarian Conditions in Iraq", a briefing
memo of Save the Children (UK), 18 October 2002.
- Note from the UN Office of the
Iraq Programme (OIP) on the implementation of the humanitarian
programme in Iraq (19 September 2002). This note, in lieu of the 90-day
report of the UN Secretary-General, is a valuable source of information
on the humanitarian situation in Iraq. An explanation of its nature,
and an index of previous reports, is provided by CASI here.
See also the accompanying statement
of the Executive Director of the OIP to the Security Council (25
September 2002). This statement begins with a review of the "dire
funding shortfall" in the oil-for-food programme due to the
reduced level of Iraq's oil exports. It also includes an assessment
of the implementation of the new import procedures brought in by the
Security Council in Resolution
1409 (14 May 2002).
- Recent reports of the Congressional Research Service, the policy
research arm of the United States Congress, on Iraq:
- Report of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef): The
Situation of Children in Iraq: An Assessment Based on the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (February 2002).
This is an incomplete transcription of the report, based on a copy obtained
by CASI (19 September 2002). Update: a PDF
file containing scanned images of the entire report (4Mb) is now
available [added 2 October 2002].
- Letter
from the Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri to the UN Secretary-General
(16 September 2002):
"I am pleased to inform you of the decision of the
Government of the Republic of Iraq to allow the return of United Nations
weapons inspectors to Iraq without conditions."
- Thinking through the consequences of war:
[Both items added to this site on 15 September 2002]
- World Food Programme Iraq - North Coordination Office: “Oil
For Food” – Food Basket Adequacy Assessment Survey (November
2001).
Survey of households in Northern Iraq finds satisfaction with the oil-for-food
rations, but that they "are not sufficient to cover all the nutritional
needs of the population." This copy is labelled as a draft, and
was released to CASI in September 2002.
- The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan addresses
the UN General Assembly: looks forward to "the suspension and
eventual ending of the sanctions that are causing so many hardships
for the Iraqi people" (12 September 2002).
- The full text of the hearings
of Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate
on 31 July - 1 August 2002 [added to the CASI site on 26 August 2002].
- The letter from Iraqi Foreign
Minister Naji Sabri to the United Nations Secretary-General of 15
August 2002 (doc. no. S/2002/939). This letter also includes a list
of the questions put to the Security Council in March 2002, and which
have not been fully answered as yet. A partial explanation of the lack
of an answer is contained in this
report on a statement by a representative of the US mission to the
UN.
- "Analysis:
Iraq After Saddam Hussein", transcript of NPR interviews
with Phebe Marr, Kanan Makiya, David Henderson and others (19 August
2002).
- The Goods Review List (GRL) annexed to Security Council Resolution
1409 (14 May 2002) is now available. From the passage of the resolution,
only items listed in the GRL are to be reviewed by the Sanctions Committee
if Iraq wishes to import them. Official version of the GRL (S/2002/515;
419 pages long) are here
(on the Unmovic site) and here
(on the OIP site). Although the GRL is annexed to a letter from the
US ambassador dated 3 May 2002 - before the resolution was even offically
passed - it was only released on 14 August 2002. A full list of documents
on the resolution and the GRL is on CASI's Security
Council Resolutions page.
- The Mennonite Central Committee has a photogallery
of Iraq in August 2002, focusing on the plight of children under sanctions.
- The Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) collection of
its published material on the disarmament of Iraq's non-conventional
weapons, from 1992 to 2002 is now available (pdf version here).
Material includes SIPRI Yearbook chapters, appendices on Unscom and
Unmovic, a chapter on chemical weapons destruction in Iraq, a list of
all the Unscom inspections and contains two tables detailing the discrepancies
between Iraq's declarations and the Unscom findings. Original Yearbook
materials are available from this
page.
- Robert Mabro, "Iraq
and oil", a monthly comment from the director of the Oxford
Institute for Energy Studies. (August 2002).
- Richard L. Russell, CIA's
Strategic Intelligence in Iraq, Political Science Quarterly
(Summer 2002).
- Policy Paper of CAFOD, the Catholic Aid Agency: "Iraq,
Sanctions and the War on Terrorism" (9 August 2002).
- Accompanying press release is here
(12 August 2002).
- CASI's index of past CAFOD statements on Iraq is here.
- Memorandum
of the Kurdistan Regional Government issued on meeting a United
Nations delegation headed by Ramiro Armando de Oliveira Lopes da Silva,
the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Oil-for-Food Program (6 August
2002).
- Statement
of the Middle East Council of Churches on the recent situation
concerning Iraq (5 August 2002), opposing the use of force against Iraq
and the sanctions regime.
- Maggy Zanger, "The
US and the Kurds of Iraq: A Bitter History", MERIP Press Information
Note 104 (9 August 2002).
- "Iraq
Sanctions: Humanitarian Implications and Options for the Future"
(6 August 2002): a wide-ranging new report by 13 major NGOs in association
with Save the Children UK recommends the lifting of economic sanctions.
- A 180-day
report on the operation of the UN Oil-for-Food Programme has been
issued by the UN Office of the Iraq Programme on 24 May 2002 [added
6 August 2002].
- Testimonies given at the Hearing before the Committee on Foreign
Relations of the United States Senate on 31 July - 1 August 2002:
Day
1 (Khidir Hamza, Anthony Cordesman, Robert Gallucci, Morton
Halperin, Charles Duelfer, Shibley Telhami; testimonies of Richard Butler,
Joseph Hoar, Thomas McInerney, Fouad Ajami, Geoffrey Kemp and Mark Parris
are presently unavailable), Day
2 (Phebe Marr, Rahim Francke, Scott Feil, Samuel Berger; testimonies
of Sinan al-Shabibi and Caspar Weinberger presently unavailable). Recordings
of the Senate hearings are available at present here.
- Proposed
US House of Representatives Resolution on the Use of Force Against Iraq
(29 July 2002).
- Unicef Baghdad Office: "Household
Food Security in Iraq: Some Food for Thought" (20 February
2002) on "the nightmare scenario" that would result from the
"interruption of the food-basket" (for example, in conditions
of conflict) [added 6 August 2002].
- "Twelve actions for twelve
years of sanctions on Iraq": CASI's new booklet of ideas
on how to oppose economic sanctions on Iraq, for the UK National Week
of Action (3 - 11 August 2002). A complete version, in pdf format, is
available here, and is
ideal for printing out and distributing.
- Draft Mission Report of the
International Telecommunication Union: "Telecommunications
as an Infrastructure Support for the Purchase and Distribution of Humanitarian
Supplies Exported to Iraq" (30 August 1998): includes a review
of the the public telecommunication network and services in Iraq [added
to site on 19 July 2002].
- Proposals from France (21
June 2002) and the UK (11 July 2002)
for Iraqi oil pricing, attempting to arrest the decline in Iraqi
oil exports.
- CASI's July 2002 newsletter
(also in html format) is now available
- all the latest information on the UN sanctions regime, international
developments, Iraq in British politics, and campaigns on Iraq.
- Status of "oil for food" contracts up to 3 July 2002.
The United Nations Office of the Iraq Programme summarises data on the
status of contracts submitted through the oil for food programme, including
the quantity and value of "holds" imposed by the Security
Council's Sanctions Committee and the sectors in which they are
imposed.
- The text of the 19 questions presented
by Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri to the UN Secretary-General on
7 March 2002, as released by the Iraqi News Agency on 10 July 2002.
The version of these questions presented by the UN Secretary-General
to the Security Council is here.
- James A. Russell, "WMD
Proliferation and Conventional Counterforce: The Case of Iraq"
(Center for Contemporary Conflict, 3 July 2002).
- "Saddam's
Ultimate Solution": an extended interview with Richard Perle,
chairman of the Defense Policy Board on the "Wide Angle" PBS documentary
(11 July 2002).
- Ninth quarterly
report of the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic) of 31 May 2002.
Earlier reports are listed here.
- A new extensively annotated
index of Iraqi opposition groups [added 13 July 2002].
- Interview with former Chief Weapons
Inspector Scott Ritter by the Boston Research Group, from 27
April 2000 [added to this site on 8 July 2002].
- Statement from the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development:
"CAFOD
rejects revised sanctions regime against Iraq" (27 June 2002):
"The new sanction regime [...] falls far short of the
radical overhaul necessary to end the penalisation of the needy and
to enable them to participate in the economy once more."
This is CASI's list of past CAFOD statements
on Iraq.
- "Iraq's
Kurds: Key to Stability in Iraq" - partial transcript of
the Panel of Iraqi Opposition Leaders's Conference (8 June 2002), hosted
at The Center for Global Peace at the American University, Washington
D.C.
- New website: the International Atomic Energy Agency's Iraq
Action Team. The website includes:
- Recommended reading: Colin Rowat, (Lecturer in Economics, Birmingham
University, UK), "Iraq
Sanctions Saga Continues amid Policy Confusion", Middle
East Economic Survey, vol.45:23 (10 June 2002).
- CASI's compilation of Security Council
Resolutions on Iraq has been reorganised, with a new
section added on resolutions relating to Iraq passed before 1990
[updated 9 June 2002].
- The Iraqi Jurists' Association, recent recipients of US State Department
funding, have a website here.
- "Inspections
in Iraq" (2 May 2002): transcript of a symposium of the Council
on Foreign Relations. Speakers are Charles Duelfer, Khidir Hamza,
and Richard Spertzel.
- Two late additions on the new UN Security Council Resolution [added
4 June 2002]:
- Statement by CAFOD (the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development)
on the new Security Council Resolution: "Changes
to Iraq sanctions are cosmetic" (16 May 2002):
"the new economic sanctions on Iraq [...] will
do little to help the plight of the ordinary people."
- Fact sheet from
the United States mission to the UN on the "Goods Review
List" (14 May 2002).
- Report of the General Accounting
Office of the U.S. Congress: Weapons
of Mass Destruction: U.N. Confronts Significant Challenges in Implementing
Sanctions against Iraq (doc ref: GAO-02-625) (29 May 2002).
- Statement
by Benon V. Sevan, Executive Director of the UN Iraq Programme, to the
Security Council (29 May 2002). A Reuters summary is "Iraq-U.N.
Oil Price Dispute Bankrupts UN Goods Plan".
- Amnesty International's Annual
Report 2002 on Iraq notes extensive violations of civil and political
rights, US/UK bombing in and outside of the "no-fly zones",
and the continuing effects of economic sanctions. Recent reports include
"Iraq:
Systematic torture of political prisoners" (15 August 2001).
Its position on economic sanctions was detailed in its statement
of 28 July 1999.
- An unofficial version of the "Goods Review List"
annexed to Security Council Resolution 1409 (14 May 2002) is available
on the UN Office of the Iraq programme website, in doc
(2.2MB) and pdf
versions (4.6MB).
- Statement by Save the
Children UK on Sanctions against Iraq (May 2002):
Save the Children UK feels that the proposed 'streamlined'
sanctions [...] will not, in the absence of complementary initiatives
[...], significantly improve the humanitarian situation in Iraq."
[Added to this site on 18 May 2002].
- Report
of the European Parliament on the situation in Iraq eleven years after
the Gulf War (26 April 2002). The Parliamentary resolution, included
in the report, was passed by Parliament on 16 May 2002, and is recorded
here.
The resolution repeats various unproven and improbable allegations on
sanctions, but in para.14 "urges the United Nations Security Council
to lift with utmost urgency most restrictions on non-military and non
dual-use trade and investments", albeit with caveats.
- Sarah Graham-Brown,
Sanctions Renewed on Iraq, MERIP Press Information Note 96 (14 May
2002).
- Added to the CASI website: the procedures
of the Sanctions Committee (the "661 committee") from
August 1996 with regard to implementing the import and export arrangements
of the oil for food programme.
- Security Council
Resolution 1409 (14 May 2002) - the text of the new resolution
and the procedures for the operation of the new "Goods Review List".
Some background is provided in the UN
Press Release and a News
Centre report. See also CASI's
press release in response to the resolution, and the other statements
listed above.
- A rolling set of recent headlines on Iraq and sanctions is now available
from the news page of the CASI site [added
28 April 2002].
- Report from the Electricity
Working Group to the UN Sanctions Committee (20 November 2001).
The report is mostly concerned with the status of Iraqi import applications,
and the consequences of holds imposed by the Sanctions Committee (see
especially slide 26). The report reveals that, as of 5 November 2001,
the value of the goods that had been placed on hold by the Sanctions
Committee ($1.06 billion) was greater than the total value of the goods
that had actually arrived in Iraq under the "oil-for-food"
scheme ($1.05 billion). 71% of the goods on hold have received the approval
of the Sanctions Committee for export to Iraq in other contracts (slide
24).
"Power management system is completely obsolete and non operational.
All applications for the new system are on hold." (slide 15)
[This report was added to the CASI site on 17 April 2002]
- The
report of 15 March 2002 by the special rapporteur of the UN Commission
on Human Rights, Andreas Mavrommatis, on the situation of human
rights in Iraq. Mavrommatis reports on the first visit to Iraq of the
special rapporteur (conducted in February 2002) that the Government
of Iraq has permitted since January 1992. Para.63-66 and 87 are on economic
sanctions. CASI's index of recent reports by the special rapporteur
is here [link added on 12 April 2002].
- The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law is
devoted to discussion on the international dimension of the Iraqi situation.
Abstracts are available on-line
(the full-text is available only on subscription). Four articles are
specifically on sanctions [added 8 April 2002].
- "Iraq briefing"
for the UK Parliamentary Labour Party, 5 March 2002, prepared
by Foreign Office and Labour Party officials. Presented by the Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw to Labour MPs, and containing his views on sanctions
and Iraq's non-conventional weapons. Background information to, and
a review of, this briefing is here
[added to the site on 6 April 2002].
- The Beirut Declaration of the Arab League summit (28 March
2002): "The Council calls for lifting the sanctions on Iraq and
ending the tribulation of the fraternal Iraqi people. [...] The Council
rejects threats of aggression against some Arab states, particularly
Iraq, and reiterates categorical rejection of attacking Iraq."
Excerpts from an unofficial translation are here.
Past statements of the Arab League on Iraq are indexed here.
- Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh: "We stress the importance
of taking a collective Arab initiative at the Beirut summit to lift,
unilaterally if needs be, the embargo imposed on Iraq for 11 years"
as reported in Times of India, "Yemen
urges Arab states to lift embargo on Iraq" (26 March 2002).
- The Church of England's Board for Social Responsibility has
produced a "Background briefing: Evaluating the threat of military
action against Iraq", 20 March 2002. Available in either the original
format (pdf file) or in html
version as published in the Church Times.
- Paper by the United Nations
oil overseers (established by the UN Sanctions Committee), discussing
pricing of Iraqi oil and consequences for Iraqi exports and revenues
(14 March 2002).
- CASI's summaries (and links to texts)
of parliamentary debates between members of the UK House of Commons
on Iraq from 6 and 12 March 2002.
- Gordon, Joy, "When Intent Makes All the Difference in
the World: Economic Sanctions on Iraq and the Accusation of Genocide",
Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal (2002) vol. 5 (PDF
or MSWord).
[added 13 March 2002]
- Save the Children (UK) report: "Understanding
Kurdish Livelihoods in Northern Iraq" (February 2002). The
accompanying press
release is from 4 February 2002. Excerpt:
"As bad as the situation is for the Kurds, all indications
are that after nearly 11 years of sanctions, Iraqis living in south
and central Iraq are even worse off [...] The fact is, sanctions -
as they are currently being implemented - simply do not work. They
have a disproportionate effect on those who are most vulnerable in
Iraqi society - particularly children."
- Interview
with US Secretary of State Colin Powell: "Sanctions and the pressure
of sanctions are part of a strategy of regime change" (Financial
Times, conducted on 12 February 2002 [added 8 March]). The implication
is that the US will maintain the sanctions regime until Saddam Hussein
falls.
- Statement
by Benon V. Sevan, Executive Director of the UN Iraq Programme,
briefing the Security Council about his recent visit to Iraq, 26 February
2002:
"The work of the Security Council [Sanctions] Committee
has bogged down almost to a standstill; one could say - without any
hesitation - that the work of the Committee is paralyzed with numerous
issues awaiting action for long periods of time. There is a need for
a serious review of the workings of the Committee [...]. Unless this
is carried out, and carried out most urgently, the effective implementation
of the [oil for food] programme may grind to a halt. We already are
witnessing major cracks in our capacity to implement the programme
effectively, with so many political and procedural hurdles, compounded
by substantial drop in revenues available for programme implementation."
- Recent US documents and speeches of relevance to Iraq and sanctions
include:
- Testimony
as delivered by Colin L. Powell, at the budget hearings, House
of Representatives International Relations Committe (6 February
2002): claims that "smart sanctions will take care of"
the alleged problems to civilians caused by sanctions.
- Prepared
Testimony of Colin L. Powell, at the budget hearing, Senate
Foreign Relations Committee (5 February 2002):
"we successfully stopped the free fall of sanctions
and began to rebuild United Nations Security Council consensus
on Iraq. The UNSC unanimously adopted resolution 1382 in November,
committing itself to implement the central element of 'smart sanctions'
by May 30 of this year."
- Testimony
as delivered by Colin L. Powell, at the budget hearing, Senate
Foreign Relations Committee (5 February 2002): adds comments on
weapons inspections to the prepared text above.
- Summary
of U.S. Assistance to the Iraqi Opposition Since 1996 (1 February
2002).
- State
of the Union address by President George W. Bush (29 January
2002): claims Iraq is part of an "axis of evil". Please
note that President Bush's reference to the Iraqi regime which "kicked
out the inspectors" is inaccurate. Weapons inspectors from
UNSCOM were withdrawn from Iraq in December 1998 on the orders of
President Bush's predecessor; they were not "kicked out".
- Unclassified
CIA report to Congress on the spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction,
1 January Through 30 June 2001. Please note that the reference
contained in this report to Saddam Hussein urging "nuclear
mujahidin" to "defeat the enemy" seems to be inconsistent
with the BBC monitoring service translation of the speech. Details
are contained here.
- FAO
urges UN committee to unblock agriculture-related contracts for Iraq
(7 January 2002), press report on the consequences of "holds"
imposed by the UN Sanctions Committee.
- Letter from Benon Sevan, Executive Director of the UN Office of the
Iraq Programme, expresses "grave concern at the unprecedented
surge in the volume of holds placed on contracts by the [UN Sanctions]
committee" (7 January 2002). A copy of the full text of the letter
and the accompanying statistics are here
(note: PDF file, 400KB). Also remarked upon in the OIP
weekly report and in a report
from the UN News Centre [original text added on 22 January 02].
- The United Nations Office of the Iraq Programme summarises data on
the status of contracts submitted through the "oil for food"
programme, including the quantity and value of "holds"
imposed by the Security Council's Sanctions Committee and the sectors
in which they are imposed:
- The Interlaken Process is the name for an ongoing discussion
on "smart sanctions" administered by the Swiss State Secretariat
for Economic Affairs. A new manual
for the design and implementation of targeted financial sanctions (originating
from a July 2001 workshop that included representatives from 30 UN permanent
missions) is now available. CASI has compiled an index
of other relevant material from the Interlaken process.
- The Iraq pages of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef)
seem to have been developed over the past few months. This is a summary
of their main pages and new information:
- Speech by Matt Robson, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of New
Zealand, entitled: "Iraq
sanctions aren’t working" (29 November 2001 [added on 16 December
2001]).
"The sanctions have mostly failed to dent the influence
and power of Saddam Hussein. In the meantime 1.5 million Iraqis have
died.... New Zealand also advocates the use of smart sanctions."
- The United States' diplomatic
and commercial relations with Iraq from 1980 to 2 August 1990 - a review
[updated on 12 December 2001]
- Draft
resolution of 3 December 2001 before the United States House of Representatives,
which would resolve that the US would declare that the refusal of Iraq
to readmit arms inspectors would constitute an "act of aggression
against the United States". The status of the Bill is recorded
here.
[added to CASI site on 9 December].
- CASI's press release of 6
December 2001 on the new Security Council resolution.
- Press
Briefing by UN Coordinator in Iraq (30 November 2001): "It was not
the lack of food or medicine that was killing the children. Many
deaths could be attributed to the lack of clean water and poor sanitary
conditions." A slightly different version
is from the UN News Centre (30 November 2001): "The biggest
killer of children is not lack of food or medicine but of water and
sanitation - clean water and sanitation are absolutely necessary for
the children of the country".
- Security Council
Resolution no. 1382 (29 November 2001).
This resolution extends the oil-for-food programme by 180 days, commencing
Phase XI on 1 December 2001. It also decides to adopt a new "goods
review list" (GRL) and procedures for its application to come into
force on 30 May 2002. Note that the GRL consists not only of the items
actually listed in the annex to the resolution, but also on the "1051
lists" and also listed within a new 150-page list drawn up
by the US. This latter list was an annex to a letter from the US ambassador
dated 27 November 2001; a copy sent to CASI can be viewed here.
All applications to import goods will have to be reviewed by Unmovic
and the UN Office of the Iraq Programme to determine if the proposed
imports contain items on the GRL. Explanations of the resolution provided
by British,
French
and Russian
foreign affairs officials, and a report
from the People's Daily (China), may also be of interest, particularly
in terms of interpreting the ambiguous paragraph 2 of the resolution.
The French
and Spanish
texts of the resolution seems to differ with the English text in respect
of paragraph 2. Two press releases from the UN, explaining the resolution
but in somewhat contradictory ways, are also of interest: see here
and here.
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